


normal first dates are for pussies

by sunsetozier



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M, mostly cute with a hint of spook, summoning demon prompt, these dummies man, theyre dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-20 23:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16147811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetozier/pseuds/sunsetozier
Summary: It really does look like something out of a shitty horror movie, that much is true – the pentagon is a pristine white in comparison to the dark brown carpet, candles working as tiny fire hazards that make him a little bit nervous. He wonders, momentarily, if salt is at all flammable, but decides to push that concern away to ask, “So, what now? Do we turn the lights off and make a blood oath? Human sacrifice? Confess all of our sins? Hold hands and start chanting?”“The book doesn’t specify about any of that, but I’m not against a little mood lighting,” Richie answers.-After an entire childhood of pining over each other, Eddie and Richie decide that their first date should be something they'll always remember. Summoning a demon is pretty unforgettable, right?





	normal first dates are for pussies

**Author's Note:**

> Day seven!! The first week is complete!!
> 
> ALSO: THANK YOU to my friend Sara (richietoaster) for beta’ing this series!! She’s such a fucking angel and I love her and I’m so grateful for how much she does for me like?? I don’t deserve you?? Thank you so much??
> 
> This is the summoning demons prompt, which I decided not to make as scary as I could have, so it's actually mostly fluff with a bit of spookiness thrown in. Y'know, casual. Hope you like it!!

            “Gonna be completely honest with you,” Richie says, “I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.”

            Eddie snorts, sparing Richie an amused glance before looking back down at the book splayed out in front of them. His arms ache slightly from leaning against his elbows as he lays on his stomach on the floor, the stiff carpet digging uncomfortably into his skin as he props his chin in one hand and uses the other to trail his finger against the words as he reads over them. A bit absentmindedly, he replies with, “I don’t know what I’m doing, either. That’s why we asked Mike for the book. To figure it out.”

            Letting out a little hum, Richie rolls onto his back, huffing out a sharp breath to blow his hair out of his face as he settles his hands against his stomach. “You make a fair point,” he muses, “but here’s the problem: a book can only do so much. I’m starting to think we should have just asked Mike and Stan to come over to make sure we don’t fuck it up.”

            “And interfere with our first date?” Eddie scoffs jokingly. “I think the fuck not.”

            Rolling his head to the side, Richie grins at Eddie, his eyes glimmering in amusement and an overwhelming fondness. “Still wrapping my head around that,” he murmurs.

            “Around what?”

            “The fact that this is a date.” Richie shifts over, plopping his head onto the page to block Eddie’s view of the book, drawing out a shocked laugh from Eddie. “The fact that you want to date me.”

            Shoving Richie away gently, Eddie lets out a low snicker and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, it’s weird, right? I never thought my standards could be so low.”

            Richie pouts, once again rolling onto his back and letting out a dramatically high pitched whine, feigning a look of hurt as he complains, “That’s not how you’re supposed to treat your date, Eds! Is this how it’s gonna be when we’re together? You making these jokes? The jokes _hurt,_ Eddie. You get that, right? Do you understand how much your jokes—”

            Abruptly, Richie gets cut off by Eddie leaning over and sealing their lips together briefly. When he pulls away, he’s wearing a smug smile while Richie silently gapes at him, eyes wide and jaw unhinged. “You talk too much,” Eddie quips simply, trying to hide his smile as he pushes himself to sit regularly, propping the book on his knee and pretending to go back to reading, though he actually continues to watch Richie’s reaction out of the corner of his eye. “It was getting distracting.”

            “Isn’t that supposed to be an end of the date thing?” Richie asks, sounding a little bit breathless but doing nothing to contain his beaming grin. For a moment, he looks contemplative, before he follows Eddie’s lead in sitting up properly, though he quickly slumps down in order to rest his head on Eddie’s shoulders. “Not that I’m complaining,” he adds. “I’m just saying, that wasn’t very traditional for first dates, Eds. Seems like you’re getting a little ahead of yourself, there.”

            “You really want to talk about what’s traditional when we’re doing this?” Eddie lifts the book slightly to indicate what he’s talking about, then lets it rest back against his leg with a quiet exhale. “Which, by the way, I could really use your help trying to figure this shit out. It’s confusing, and translated from Latin by Stan, who’s only semi-fluent. It’s easy to say some parts don’t make a whole lot of sense, and I feel like fucking this up could be, like, life threatening. Or world ending.”

            With a wistful sigh, Richie sing-songs, “Ending the world on our first date? How _romantic!”_ He lets out a little giggle when Eddie uses the shoulder he’s leaning on to nudge against him, causing him to quickly recoil and relent, “Okay, okay! Hand it over, my dear. Let good ol’ Richie Rich give it a go.” Sitting up fully, he tugs the book out of Eddie’s lap and into his own, his brows drawing together and his lips silently forming the words as he read over them. Eddie watches with embarrassingly rapt interest, and he’s just beginning to consider ditching this entire idea and just make out instead when Richie perks up and exclaims, “Oh, I get it!”

            Eddie blinks in mild surprise. “Wait, are you fucking serious? I’ve been trying to understand this shit for, like, _three hours—”_

            “Twenty minutes,” Richie corrects.

            “—and I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me,” Eddie goes on, ignoring Richie’s interjection. Leaning over excitedly, he looks down at the book and says, “So, what do we do? How to we make this work? Is it at cliché as the movies make it look?”

            Richie tilts his head from side to side in a so-so manner, answering, “I mean, kind of. I’m pretty sure the movies base it off of real life, so it’s definitely similar. First off, we need to make a circle, I guess. Stan wrote that candles help but aren’t a necessity. I’m pretty sure I don’t have candles, though.”

            Quickly standing up, Eddie sprints out of Richie’s bedroom and makes his way down the hall, leaving Richie sitting there in confusion until he comes back carrying a box of plain, scentless white candles. “I bought these for you when you moved into this place,” he explains in response to Richie’s clearly bewildered look. “I wanted to make sure you had something in case the power went out or something, so you wouldn’t be left in the dark. I knew you’d just light them for fun if you knew about them, though, so I hid them in the very back of your hall closet. You’re welcome, by the way.”

            “I moved in here two years ago,” Richie states dumbly, watching as Eddie sits next to him again, setting the box of candles in front of him.

            “Yeah, I know,” Eddie shrugs, gesturing to the book. “Keep going. I’m starting to get hungry but I refuse to drop this just to go get dinner, so we gotta speed this up.”

            After a short moment of Richie gazing at Eddie softly, he complies, shifting his eyes back down to the book. “So, the pentagon thing is true, I guess,” he says, brows twitching up slightly before furrowing together as he continues reading. “Oh, fuck, uh- we need salt to keep it in the circle, or else we could let something really bad loose, which is where the life threatening slash world ending thing that you mentioned can come up. We should probably avoid that. Can you—?”

            Before Richie can finish his question, Eddie is back on his feet, throwing a meek, “I’m on it,” over his shoulder as he once again makes his way out of the room.

            “You’re the actual love of my life,” Richie states matter-of-factly, looking at the vacant doorway Eddie disappeared through with a bemused grin and shaking his head slightly. He’s not sure what compels him to say it, but he finds that he doesn’t mind admitting it on the first date. They’ve been friends since they were five, after all. Is there really such a thing as too casual, or even too soon with them? He doesn’t think so – especially since his way of asking Eddie on this date was with a text that just said, _hey, i’m tired of being just friends, you wanna go out w me?_

            Eddie’s response had just been a simple, _jesus christ, took you long enough._

            In conclusion, Richie thinks that when they get engaged – _when,_ not _if;_ he’s been sure about who he’s gonna end up with since middle school – it won’t be some big proposal, but rather a simple conversation over a few boxes of take out where they come to the mutual agreement that they’re ready for marriage. He wouldn’t be surprised if that conversation also happened tonight, to be completely honest.

            Apparently hearing Richie from the kitchen, Eddie calls back, “Yeah, I know. I’ve known that since we were thirteen, dumbass. You’re not exactly subtle.” This just makes Richie smile wider, his face actually aching with the action. When Eddie reappears in the doorway, it’s with a container of salt on his hand and slightly flushed cheeks. Standing in the center of the room, he adds, “And you are, too, by the way. The love of my life, I mean. Just in case that wasn’t clear.”

            Richie thinks that there’s never been a first date better than this one.

            “What’s next?” Eddie asks, his blush deepening slightly when Richie just stares at him in a love struck awe. It takes a moment for Richie to blink himself out of his daze.

            “Um.” Richie clears his throat, focusing back in on the task at hand and forcing himself to look back down at the book. “Okay, so… make a circle first, I guess? With the salt, on the floor. It’ll be easier to make an even looking star if you have the circle. Wow, Stan thought of everything to add on here. Not gonna lie, these look like math notes. It’s kind of impressive, actually, but I’m kind of concerned, too.”

            Opening up the salt, Eddie warns, “Stay focused, please,” and then starts making a circle on the carpet with the salt, as instructed.

            Richie looks at the scene with a small frown. “Fuck, I’m gonna have to vacuum all of that up, aren’t I? This suddenly doesn’t sound like a fun idea anymore.”

            “I’ll clean it up,” Eddie dismisses quickly. “And this was never supposed to be _fun,_ Richie. It’s a learning experience… and a way to quench our curiosity that will probably get us killed if we don’t do it exactly right. Just keep reading and tell me what to do next.”

            “Bossy,” Richie mumbles, laughing when Eddie throws a small handful of salt in his direction. After brushing it off of him, he goes back to scanning over the words. “After that’s done, complete the pentagon by making a star in the circle. You know what a fucking pentagon looks like. After that, we have to light five candles and put them on the corners of the star…?” He lets out a little, incredulous laugh and shakes his head. “Wow, this feels really dumb. Like, this is the beginning to a bad horror movie, but a lot gayer ‘cause we’re the ones doing it. And we probably won’t do it right.”

            Satisfied with the pentagon, Eddie sets the salt on Richie’s dresser and picks up the box of candles, standing next to Richie expectantly. “C’mon, up ya’ get,” he says, nudging his foot into Richie’s thigh impatiently. “I’m not lighting all of these by myself. Off your ass, Tozier.”

            Letting out an overdramatic groan of complaint, Richie feigns reluctance and lifts the book out of his lap, sliding it into his bed and pushing himself to his feet. Jutting his lower lip out into a pout, he flutters his lashes, only to let out a yelp when Eddie suddenly slides his hand into the back pocket of Richie’s jeans. He snickers as Richie’s face burns a bright red and withdraws his hand with Richie’s lighter clutches between his fingers. “A little fucking warning next time,” Richie breathes, flustered.

            “That’s no fun,” Eddie grins, plopping the box next to the book on the bed and opening the top of it in order to take a candle into hand. Thankfully, they come with their own individual little candle holders, which makes it a lot easier as he holds up the lighter to ignite the wick. Handing the now lit candle to Richie, he tells him, “I light them, you place them.”

            “Yes, sir,” Richie salutes, his cheeks still slightly pink from before as he does as told, taking the candle and nestling it into the corner of salt signifying a tip of the star. He does the same for the next four that are handed to him, then returns to the book to read the nearly written instructions waiting for him. He lets out a little hum in concentration, brows once again drawing together, and recites, “A simple prayer should be enough to initiate contact. Carefully choose the intensity of your prayer in order to summon something weaker or stronger.” Glancing up at Eddie, he asks, “How dangerous are we getting here, Eds? A little scary, or certain death?”

            Eddie purses his lips. “We’re first timers, so the weakest prayer possible.”

            Pitching his voice to imitate Eddie’s, Richie mimics, _“That’s no fun.”_

            “I’d like to survive long enough for a second date, thanks,” Eddie says, rolling his eyes as he examines the scene before them. It really does look like something out of a shitty horror movie, that much is true – the pentagon is a pristine white in comparison to the dark brown carpet, candles working as tiny fire hazards that make him a little bit nervous. He wonders, momentarily, if salt is at all flammable, but decides to push that concern away to ask, “So, what now? Do we turn the lights off and make a blood oath? Human sacrifice? Confess all of our sins? Hold hands and start chanting?”

            “The book doesn’t specify about any of that, but I’m not against a little mood lighting,” Richie answers, shrugging half heartedly as he double checks the script. He can’t help but frown as he does so, questioning, “Does this seem, like, _too_ cliché to you? I feel like this is wrong. Like, if I googled it or something, I think I’d find something _very_ different.”

            “Do you think Stan and Mike would lie to us?” Eddie asks, crossing the room to flip the light switch, enveloping the room in a much softer lighting offered by the candles.

            Richie falters, pursing his lips. “Kind of, yeah. That sounds exactly like something they would do if we asked them for a book that would help us summon a demon.”

            Returning to Richie’s side, Eddie makes a noncommittal noise and waves a hand dismissively. “If this doesn’t work, then we’ll try what google says. I told you, this is a learning experience. If nothing happens, at least we’ll know what _not_ to do, right?”

            “Looking on the bright side,” Richie nods. “I like your style, Kaspbrak.”

            “I like _you,_ Tozier,” Eddie responds without missing a beat. “Now help me come up with a prayer so we can get this show on the road. At this rate, I might die of hunger before a demon can even attempt to lay a finger on me, and that’s just boring.”

            “Uh…” Richie trails off, reading and rereading what’s in front of him. Shaking his head slightly, he says, “It just says any sort of prayer, followed by a… mental invitation? Wait, what the fuck does that mean?” Eyes narrowing down into a confused squint, he ducks his head to try and make sense of the words. After a moment, he lets out a little ooh, leaning back slightly with a wary gaze. “Okay, the way this is worded is… well. You’re right, it’s obvious that this is translated by someone who isn’t completely fluent in Latin, but basically, we have to make up our own prayer and then… invite demons in via thought, I guess? Like, asking them to come mentally and trying to establish a connection.” He looks to Eddie, lips tugged down in a frown. “Why does this sound like a really bad dating site?”

            Eddie snorts at that, looking thoroughly amused as he eyes the little diagram that had been drawn on the corner of the page. “Alright, I think… I think I get it. Does the prayer have to be out loud?”

            Scoffing, Richie looks up at Eddie helplessly and honestly answers, “You know my family’s never been any kind of religious, Eds. Like, my parents believe in God, I guess, but they only took me to church when I was, like, three, and it was just ‘cause my grandma made them do it, not ‘cause they cared that much. We may have friends that made me believe in this shit, but that doesn’t mean I have any idea how any sort of praying works or anything. You’re on your own there, but for the record, it doesn’t say anything about if it has to be a verbal prayer or not in the book. My guess is that it doesn’t matter, but there’s a good chance I’m wrong there.”

            “Hm.” Eddie considers this for a moment. “Okay. I’ll try it. Is there a specific place to sit or something, or do we just have to be by the circle?”

            “Just by the circle, I’m pretty sure,” Richie says, once again glancing over the page before nodding to himself. “Since this is a date, though, I insist that we hold hands, or else I’m shutting this entire thing down. And I mean it, Eds, so you better fuckin’ hold my hand.”

            Eddie grins. “I was gonna ask you the same thing, actually.” Holding out his hand expectantly, he adds, “Put the book down. Let’s do this.”

            For a solid thirty seconds, Richie forgets what they’re doing.

            It’s not his fault, really – in this soft, flickering lighting offered by the candles, Eddie is far too distracting, even more so than usual. The freckles that have begun to fade away with age look delicate in a stunning kind of way, and his eyes kind of look like they’re glowing. His features in general are just… _soft._ Beautiful. Hard to look away from.

            Richie takes his hand.

            “I’m gonna try and do the prayer silently first,” Eddie tells him as they both sit at the edge of the circle, close enough to feel the heat of the candles but far enough away that neither of them feel in danger of what’s to come. Richie tightens his hold on Eddie, intertwines their fingers and even raises their linked hands up to press a kiss to the side of Eddie’s wrist, receiving a fond grin in response to the action.

            “Do your thing, gorgeous,” Richie says, lowering their hands to rest on the tops of his thigh and offering an excited smile. “Let’s see if this works.”

            The following few minutes are a little strange, but they’re kind of pleasant, too. Richie watches in fascination as Eddie closes his eyes in concentration, brows pinching together and teeth sinking into his lower lip. Richie can practically hear Eddie’s thoughts, that’s how much effort he’s putting into this, and he’s so caught up in looking at Eddie that he almost doesn’t notice the way the candles suddenly waver.

            Almost.

            He does notice after a moment, and one he does he can’t help but stare at the little flames, eyes wide and heart thundering with anticipation. It looks like they’re flickering in a breeze, but there’s no wind in his room, nothing that could possibly cause this kind of reaction. And then, as if to prove that there’s not reasonable explanation for this, one of the candles goes out entirely.

            “Holy shit,” he breathes, jaw dropping slightly in shock. Besides him, Eddie snaps his eyes open to see what’s going on, looking just as enraptured as Richie feels whilst the two of them watch as a second candle goes out, then another, and even a fourth, the candle closest to them being the only one still lit. Swallowing thickly, Richie murmurs, “I think it worked.”

            “Something’s definitely here,” Eddie agrees softly, goosebumps rising along the expanse of his arms and a shiver running down his spine. It feels like there are eyes on them, watching them, studying them. Feeling much more nervous than excited, he glanced Richie’s way and asks, “You sure that the salt will be enough to contain it?”

            Running the tip of his tongue along his bottom lip, a nervous tick of his, Richie tells him, “That’s what the book said. It also said that the quickest way to send what you summon away is to blow the candles out, so I don’t… I don’t really know what this means. I’m pretty sure if we blow this candle out, it’ll be gone, though. Maybe that’s why it’s the only one left? It can’t extinguish the flame on its own?”

            “Maybe,” Eddie mumbles, his gaze flickering around the space in front of them, trying to detect any sort of movement or presence. They can both feel it, the fact that there is something else here, something in that circle, but whatever it is has thus far chosen to remain unseen. Something about that makes him feel more uneasy than seeing some gangly, monstrous creature every could. Clearing his throat, he cautiously asks, “Can you show yourself?”

            Richie decides in that moment that this was probably a bad idea. Like, he knew it wasn’t a _smart_ one, but he also knew that he was curious what it was like, and that Eddie was curious, too. They’d decided to do this together, and they both knew it was a dumb thing to do when they agreed to do it, but it’s only just now setting in how stupid it really is. Because as soon as that questions leaves Eddie’s lips, quiet and unsure and a little bit afraid, the floor beneath them trembles, a sudden wind picks up in the room despite the window be shut, and the door to his bedroom slams shut.

            Whatever they summoned may be stuck in the circle of salt, Richie realizes, but what it’s capable of is not. It can’t leave the pentagon, but it can still hurt them.

            “I think we need to send it away,” Richie states, his shaky words clipped and sounding damn near hysterical as they hang in the air. It feels like there’s an earthquake happening, the floor shaking and things in Richie’s room shifting from the intensity of it, a few of his belongings even sliding off the top of his dresser and colliding heavily against the floor. The candle is to Eddie’s right, too far for Richie to be able to blow out, and as the container of salt that had been on his dresser a moment before starts to slide across the carpet, towards the pentagon and quickly becoming a threat to breaking the circle of salt, he practically pleads, “Now, Eddie! Blow the candle out now!”

            A slew of curses drip from Eddie’s lips as he does as asked, ducking his head and letting out a gust of a breath that makes the flame flicker, waver, and then go out entirely, leaving them in a darkness that is only semi visible due to the faint end of the day sunlight coming in through the blinds of Richie’s window. As soon as the candle is out, everything stills, and they both stare in mild horror at the container of salt, only a mere few inches away from the line of salt – a moment longer, and the circle would have broken, freeing whatever it is they had summoned and likely killing them in the process.

            The relief feels almost like a drug as it floods their systems.

            “Well, that was definitely a learning experience,” Eddie says quietly, drawing out a snort from Richie, who ends up slumping his shoulders and leaning against Eddie as he lets out an endless amount of breathless little giggles. After a second, Eddie joins in, laughing lightly and turning his head to meet Richie’s gaze, both of them sporting crinkly-eyed grins and bewildered gazes. Through his laughter, he adds, “Gonna be honest, I don’t think I need to do that again. Ever. I learned enough from what just happened.”

            “That’s fair,” Richie giggles, propping his chin on Eddie’s shoulder and blinking at him giddily. “Is dinner still on the table though? I always get hungry after fearing for my life.”

            Eddie purses his lips in faux consideration before offering, “Only if we go to the Chinese place down the street, and then maybe to a movie or something. You know, proper first date stuff.”

            Bringing a free hand up to push a strand of hair our of Eddie’s face, Richie muses, “You’re literally the perfect man. C’mon, let’s go. I’ll pay for dinner if you pay for the movie.”

            “Deal,” Eddie grins, letting Richie tug him to his feet. The two of them spare the mess in the room a quick glance before deciding to deal with it later, instead making their way into the hallway to put on jackets and shoes. As the two of them leave, the front door of Richie’s apartment closing behind them, the container of salt begins to move once more, inching over until it drags over the line of salt, effectively breaking the circle. With a whoosh of air, what had been stuck within makes its way out, opening Richie’s window and disappearing into the October evening.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think and hmu on tumblr @ sunsetozier !!
> 
> Tomorrow's prompt is midnight ball, and it's rated mature.


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